There Goes the World
by Zowe
Summary: There is a new rebel group in the Earth sphere. When a young hacker steals this group's plans she becomes their newest target. The Preventers catch word of the situation, and send Heero and Duo to L1 to make sure the girl doesn't end up in enemy hands.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This should be obvious, but I'll say it anyway. I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
AN: This is my first try at fanfic of any kind, so I really don't know what I'm doing. But don't let that scare you off. I've actually received compliments on this fic. Enjoy.  
  
WARNINGS: language and controversial opinions regarding religion and government.  
  
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Duo Maxwell leaned back into his desk chair and stared at the pretty young woman standing in front of his desk. If the young woman, who happened to be Duo's secretary, had looked up from the electronic organizer that she was reading Duo's schedule from she would have noticed that it was a blank stare, and that he wasn't actually listening to a word she was saying. However, she didn't look up.  
  
Duo tired to listen to her, he really did, but he had become tired of the dullness of office work. Recently, his mind had taken to wandering while his secretary told him his schedule each morning. Perhaps it was time for another practical joke; he considered this idea and possible victims while his secretary drowned on.   
  
Certainly not Trowa, the heavyarms pilot never even seemed to care about Duo's practical jokes, which took all the fun out of it. Heero was bad choice, as well; Duo had ended up with a broken noise last time. That left Wufei; a smile tugged at Duo's lips. The worst that Wufei had ever done after being victim to Duo's jokes was chase him yelling about injustice. Perfect, he had a target, now all he needed was a good idea.  
  
Then his secretary said something that caught Duo's interest. "Your last meeting for the day is with Lady Une."   
  
Duo's curiosity was perked. Une usually only called meetings with him to give him new orders. "Do you know what it's about?" He asked.   
  
The young women punched a few buttons on the palm-sized computer, and shook her head. "No, sir."  
  
He grinned, he was getting new orders; Une was finally going to release him from his office cage and send him out into the field. There had been rumors of a new rebel group on L1, maybe his new orders were related to that.   
  
It did not matter to Duo what it was, he would be glad for any excuse to escape the paperwork and redundancy of office life. He daydreamed about his new mission until his secretary announced that his first appointment of the day had just arrived. Duo inwardly cringed, and prepared himself for another dull day of office work.  
  
******  
  
Finally, after hours of dull paper work and meetings, Duo entered Lady Une's office. Lady Une greeted him and waved from him to sit down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. As Duo took his seat, he saw that Heero occupied the other chair. The other Gundam pilot acknowledged Duo's presence with a simple nod. Duo wanted to roll his eyes: they had been friends for four years, and all he gets is a nod. However, Duo thought, a nod was much better then the glare that most people received as a greeting from Heero.  
  
"I assume both of you have heard about the rebel cells we found on L1," Lady Une began, going straight to the point. Both pilots nodded in the affirmative. "Good, we have been interrogating the rebels we captured, and unfortunately they have connections to a much larger organization." A small screen on Lady Une's desk turned on, and started to display information. "We know that this new groups calls itself the Bolsheviks."   
  
Heero raised an eyebrow at the name. "Wasn't that what the communist party during the Russian revolution?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, it was. However, our new Bolsheviks only share a few similarities with the old. They are a religious group that supports the teachings of communism, thus the name. We're not entirely sure what their intentions are, but if they are true to their namesake they will want to end capitalism, and start a new order of communism. We have evidence that their cells are hidden in religious communes set up all over the Earth sphere in order to achieve this." Une leaned back in her desk chair, and paused for a moment before continuing. "We have encountered a bit of a road block in our efforts to stop them. The Bolsheviks have been very successful at making sure that no information gets out. We can't even be sure what communes they are affiliated with."  
  
"I though that we got prisoners when we raided the cells," piped Duo.  
  
"Not many. The Bolshevik cells always seem to know what we're doing; we suspect that their hackers have gained access to our network or we have a leak. Either way, every time we attack a cell it's ether been evacuated or there was a mass suicide."   
  
A surprised look came over Duo's face, and even Heero raised an eyebrow at Une's statement. "Mass suicide?" Duo managed to stammer.   
  
Une nodded sadly. "The Bolsheviks' religious front has its followers believing that capitalists are minions of Satan. They all rather die than be caught."  
  
"What are we suppose to do?" Heero said in his usual monotone.  
  
"I was just getting to that. We know that the Bolsheviks have a vast network of spies and hackers working for them that are just as loyal as their other followers. One captive was able to tell me something that I found rather interesting."   
  
More data popped up onto the screen, with a drawing- the kind police use to find criminals- of a young girl besides it. "This young woman is known as Mouse. The Bolsheviks have been putting quite a bit of effort into locating her since she escaped from one of their communes a few months ago. Supposedly, she worked as a Bolshevik hacker and stole some vital information before escaping. Obviously, they want what she has. You two will find her and prevent that from happening."   
  
Lady Une took a brown envelope out of her desk and slid it across the surface. "You will find all the information that you need in there, as well as your tickets on a shuttle to L1 tomorrow morning."   
  
Heero grabbed the envelope from Une's desk. "Anything else?" he asked as he stood up.  
  
"No, you are both dismissed." The pilots got up and walked out of Lady Une's office.   
  
Once outside Duo threw his arm around Heero's shoulder. "Looks like you're stuck with me again, buddy." Duo grinned as Heero glared at him, and shrugged Duo arm off. "Ah, come on Heero, you know you love spending time with me."   
  
"Hn," was Heero's reply.  
  
Duo followed Heero into his office and sat down in the comfortable visitors' chair. He had no desire to return to his own office; he was too excited at the prospect of escaping it with his new mission. "So what do you think about these Bolsheviks people?"  
  
"They're dangerous," Heero said without even looking up from his laptop. "Probably more so than the other rebellions."   
  
Duo's curiosity became active. "What makes you say that?"  
  
"I've read the files on them. They're using religion as a tool to gain followers and loyalty. A lot of people will believe whatever shit the Bolsheviks feed them simply because they're told it's some god's will."  
  
"I take it that you're not a big fan of religion."   
  
"Religion is one of man's deadliest creations. Especially when mixed with politics."   
  
Duo mulled Heero's words over in his mind before speaking, and unconsciously fingered the cross around his neck. "You think we'll be able to stop them?"  
  
"We have to," replied the former pilot while still typing away on his computer.   
  
Duo silently agreed. They had only obtained peace a few years ago; it was far too soon to lose it. These Bolsheviks were playing with people's faith, and that never ended well. During the history of mankind such actions had lead to war more often than not.  
  
Heero looked up from his computer toward Duo, "Don't you have work to do?"  
  
"Nope, all done for today." Duo grinned and quickly decided on a new course for the conversation, which for once was not completely one sided. "Aren't you the least bit excited, Heero? We are going to L1, you know, you're childhood home."  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not? You'll be able to see all your old friends."  
  
"I didn't have any friends."   
  
Somehow Duo wasn't all that surprised. "Not even any old girl friends you'd like to see?" Duo teased.  
  
"No," Heero said, emotionless as always.  
  
"Ah, you're no fun Heero."  
  
"Get out." Duo, for once, actually listened to Heero and left the office with a cheerful wave.  
  
After Duo was gone Heero leaned back into his desk chair, and thought about his new mission. What did he think about going back to L1? It was, as Duo had said, his childhood home. Then again the past wasn't something that he really wanted to revisit.   
  
Heero opened the envelope that contained his mission information, and laid its contains on his desk. Among the fake ids and documents that Heero and Duo would need to make their journey was a shiny CD. Heero slid it into the CD-ROM on his laptop and explored the files of the disc. The CD had a copy of all the Preventer's data on the Bolsheviks. The disc also contained information on all the citizens on L1 that fit the description of Mouse.   
  
Heero clicked on the latter file and a list of names popped up onto his screen. It seemed as if the Bolshevik survivor had been rather talkative about Mouse. The list only consisted of just under two hundred names out of the thousands of citizens of L1. He scrolled down through the names, trying to find one that stood out. It wasn't long before he found one.  
  
"Nezumi Houkyo," he read out loud.   
  
European culture dominated the Earth sphere, and most modern names had their roots in that continent's languages. However, this name was definitely not a descendent of one of those languages. This name had its origins in the language of Heero's youth, Japanese. What made this name even more interesting was that nezumi meant mouse in Japanese.  
  
A satisfied smirk crossed Heero's features. This mission was going to be easy.  
  
*****  
  
AN: Just a friendly reminder to review since you've finished reading. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, so there.  
  
"There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness and death."   
--Fran Liebowitz  
  
******  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Heero and Duo had been on the shuttle to L1 for nearly two hours. During that time period Duo had managed to annoy his companion almost to the point of violence. The fact that the in-flight movie was one of those bad teen movies did not help the situation. Heero was wandering if he should shoot the movie screen or Duo first. He had decided to spare Duo when the American had finally settled down and fallen asleep almost half an hour ago. Thankfully, the movie had ended not long after Duo went to sleep, so Heero had not found it necessary to use his gun against it. With both Duo and the movie out of the way Heero was left alone with his thoughts.   
  
He had not been to L1 since the war, and he was uncertain if he should be happy or dreading his return. Heero, being a natural pessimist, was inclined to think that he should be dreading it. He had been trying to leave the past behind him for four years. Returning to L1, where the tragedy of his life began, might only serve to make painful memories resurface. However, going back might also help him put the old ghosts of his past to rest. It was because of this that Heero had mixed feelings of his homecoming.  
  
Heero shook his head clear of the conflicting thoughts. He had a mission, and he needed a clear head. His past had been waiting for years for him to deal with it; it could wait a bit longer.  
  
He decided that it would be best to follow Duo's lead and sleep. He closed his dark blue eyes and allowed himself to enter the realm of Morpheus for the remainder of the trip.  
  
******  
  
"Heero, wake up." Heero's eyes opened at the sound of Duo's voice penetrating his dreams. "The shuttle will be landing soon." Heero simply nodded, and blinked the fog of sleep away. He looked out the window next to his seat, and saw the shuttle gate of L1 swiftly approaching. He felt the strange mixture of emotions rise at the sight of the colony, much stronger now that he could see his former home.  
  
Heero and Duo felt the shuttle jolt as it came to rest. Duo grinned at his fellow pilot. "We're here, Heero."   
  
*****  
  
Heero stared out the window as the taxi drove through L1. Normally, a Preventer would have meet them at the space port, but not this time. Heero and Duo would be keeping their contact with the Preventers at a minimum. To do other wise would give away their presence, and possibly their mission, to the Bolsheviks. So instead of riding through L1 in a clean, comfortable sedan, Heero and Duo sat in the back seat of a dirty taxi.  
  
The buildings that they passed gradually become more run down as they neared the location of their temporary home and base. The taxi stopped in front of a row of old townhouses. Their base had been chosen for its proximity to the L1's slums, and it showed. They quickly unloaded their supplies and carried them into a townhouse after paying the driver.   
  
Heero was pleased to note that the interior of the house was much more eye pleasing than the exterior. The Preventers had furnished the townhouse with the basics: a table, chairs, beds, and other things the partners would need during their stay.   
  
After they had deposited their belongings in their rooms Heero sat down at the table with his laptop. Duo soon entered the kitchen in search of food; it had been hours since their last meal, and Duo's stomach was demanding to be feed. He gathered various foodstuffs and compiled them into a sandwich. Duo carried his creation over to the table and sat down across from Heero.   
  
"Hey, Heero you want some of this?"   
  
Heero looked up from his laptop at the offered sandwich, which to Heero looked more like a science experiment gone wrong than food. Duo had somehow managed to fit various meats, vegetables, sauces, and what looked suspiciously like gummy worms between two pieces of bread. "I'll pass."   
  
Duo shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, and ate the reminder of his creation. When he had finished the so-called sandwich a rather important question entered his mind. "Hey, Heero how are we going to find this girl? I know we have a lot of info on her, but there's a lot of people here."  
  
"I already found her."   
  
Duo's eyes widen with surprise. "You did?"   
  
Heero nodded. He typed a few commands into his computer and motioned for Duo to come look at what he had just pulled up. Duo moved his chair so that it was close enough for him to see. On the screen was a photograph of a young girl that computer identified as Nezumi Houkyo, along with information on her. Duo quickly scanned the information, looked at the photo, and frowned slightly.  
  
"You sure this is her?" Heero nodded. "How? I know she fits the description, but so do a lot of other people."  
  
"It's her name."  
  
"Nezumi Houkyo, what about it?"  
  
"Nezumi means mouse."   
  
Duo, again, looked at the screen, and not for the first time since receiving this mission wondered what kind of parents would name their kid after a mouse. Giving a kid a name like that was just asking for him, or her in this case, to grow up with some sort of mental disorder. "Really?" Heero nodded. "Oh, well that was easy. Now we just have to find her, I guess." Duo leaned back in the stiff wooden chair. "So where does she live?" Heero shrugged and Duo face faulted. "You don't where she lives?"  
  
"She has communist zealots after her, do you really think that she would be listed in the phone book?"   
  
Duo considered this for a moment. "Well, when you put it that way, no. How are we suppose to find her if we don't where to look?"  
  
"Around."   
  
Duo rolled his eyes and leaned back further in his chair, so that it was only on its two back legs. "Well, since you seem to have a plan in mind why don't you enlighten...AH!" Duo crashed to the tile floor as his chair slipped out from under him. Duo righted himself and the chair. "Fuck, that hurt," he mumbled as he rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head where it had met the floor. Duo sat back down, careful not to lean back in his chair. "So, how are you planning to find the girl?"  
  
"I know some people in the underground that'll be able to help."   
  
Duo nodded, not all surprised to learn that Heero had connections to that kind of people. After all, Heero certainly had not bought all those weapons during the war legally. "So when we do we meet these friends of yours?"  
  
"Tomorrow."   
  
Duo nodded and yawned. He looked at a clock hanging on the wall; it was already past midnight. "Well, I'm going to sleep. See you tomorrow." Heero nodded and returned his attention to his computer screen.   
  
After working for another hour Heero shut down his computer and headed to his room. He changed out of his jeans and shirt into a loose pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Heero had not even realized how tired he was until he felt the cool fabric of the pillow against his cheek. Heero, however, did not contemplate the source of his exhaustion long, and fell asleep within a few minutes.  
  
******  
  
AN: Hey, you did it! You finished the second chapter. Since, you've read this far why don't you tell me what you think. I would really appreciate it if you did. 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: It's sad but true, I do not own Gundam Wing.  
  
AN: Hello, I just wanted to thank everybody that's reading, and a special thanks to nyan-nyan, who was kind enough to review my fic. It's nice to know that someone likes what I'm doing. Anyway, here's the third chapter, as always enjoy and please review.  
  
"Eagles may soar, but weasels are never sucked into jet engines."  
---Unknown  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Heero woke up early the next morning, and immediately went to work making preparations for his meeting, which was easy, since all he had to do was make sure that the friend he had in mind still owned a bar deep within a seedy section of L1. Heero pulled up a local phone directory on his computer, and checked the listings. He found it easily; Harper's Ferry owned by one John Brown. With knowledge of his contact's location secure Heero decided that it was time for Duo to get up.  
  
He headed up the stairs and into Duo's room. Just as he suspected, Duo was sprawled out on his bed, fast asleep. Heero momentarily paused to consider the best way to wake the other pilot. He quickly made his decision, walked over to the bed and ripped the covers off it.   
  
"Just a few more minutes." Duo mumbled into his pillow as he unsuccessfully groped for his blanket.   
  
"Get up."   
  
Duo opened his eyes to see Heero scowling at him, which was not a sight that anyone would like to wake up to. Duo sat up, and rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. "Why? Are we going somewhere?" Heero nodded. "Where?"  
  
"Out."   
  
Duo rolled his eyes. "You ever planning tell me what the hell you're doing?"  
  
"No. Now, get up."  
  
"Fine, I'll get up, but at some point in time you're going to tell me what's going on."  
  
With a simple "Hn." Heero left the room.  
  
Duo appeared in the kitchen a little while later, freshly showered and hair neatly braided. He was gathering everything he would need to make a spectacular omelet, complete with gummy worms, when Heero stopped him and threw him a bagel.   
  
"Come on, we're going."  
  
"What about my omelet?" Duo whined. Heero eyed the assembled ingredients. He didn't know much about cooking, but the omelet was promising to be as appetizing as yesterday's sandwich. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I am a growing young boy," Duo chirped with cheerful grin.  
  
"You're nineteen, the only place you're growing is the waist," Heero informed him coolly.   
  
A mock pained look crossed Duo's face. "Are you saying I'm getting fat, Heero?"   
  
Instead of replying Heero turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Duo looked fondly at the ingredients of his omelet before following, with his consolation bagel in hand.   
  
Both grabbed their jackets before leaving. Once outside, they started walking through the streets of the slum, with Heero in the lead. Surprisingly, Duo said nothing for a while; he was too busy eating his breakfast. Heero knew that when the bagel was gone Duo would talk. Unfortunately, for Heero, the bagel did not last very long, and Duo was soon inquiring of their destination.  
  
"So where are going, anyway?"  
  
"A bar."   
  
Duo was slightly confused by this answer. He knew that Heero drank, he did too, but it wasn't even noon yet. "Isn't it a little early to go out for drinks?"  
  
  
"We're not going there for drinks."   
  
Duo considered this for a moment. Why would anyone want to go to a bar if he didn't either want to get wasted or pick up girls? The first option had already been ruled out, and Duo just couldn't picture Heero trying to flirt with a random girl at a bar. He looked around; the buildings surrounding them were even shabbier then their townhouse. With this simple observation, Duo understood. "One of your contacts?" The taciturn pilot nodded in response.  
  
After walking further into L1's slums Heero stopped in front of a building that was showing its age, a sign that read 'Harper's Ferry' hung over the doorway. They walked into the bar, and were greeted by the distinctive odors of smoke and booze. The bar was dark despite the hour, as any seedy bar in a bad neighborhood should be. A single patron sat at the bar conversing with the middle-aged bartender. Heero and Duo walked up to the bar, while the bartender excused himself from the patron to tend to the newcomers.   
  
"What do you want?" he asked with a thick Irish accent.  
  
"We need to talk with the manager."   
  
The bartender eyed them suspiciously before speaking. "He's busy."   
  
Heero moved the front of his jacket just enough for the bartender to see his hand resting on the hilt of his gun. "Tell him it's important."   
  
The bartender eyed the pair again before nodding and disappearing into a back room. He emerged a few minutes later and nodded for the pilots to follow him. He led them down a dark hallway that stank as much as the bar and into a small office.  
  
"This is them, John," he said to a middle-aged man with graying hair and a strange glint in his eye. The man nodded and the bartender left the room. John Brown looked his visitors over, and stopped when he reached Heero's face. A small smile crept on to his lips.  
  
"Well, I never though I'd see you again, kid." He stopped to see if Heero would reply, when the young man remained silent he continued. "Still not much for talking, I see. Go ahead and sit down." He waved at two chairs situated in front of his desk, and leaned back in his own chair. "So what brings you to L1? I thought you'd got yourself a cozy little job on Earth with the Preventers."  
  
"We need information."   
  
John raised an eyebrow with interest. "Oh, there's something you and your Preventers can't find out, is there?" He paused again to see if Heero would react. "Well, go on and spit it out, kid, I'll tell you what I can."  
  
"We're looking for Nezumi Houkyo."   
  
John's eyebrow quirked up again. "So the Preventers are looking for the little mouse now too, are they? Not surprising, since the Bolsheviks have been spending so much time looking for her."  
  
"The Bolsheviks know that Nezumi is Mouse?" Duo asked.  
  
"Of course they know. Not that it matters two shits, because they still can't find the girl." A slight smile played on his lips. "That girl ain't called the little mouse for nothin'. Bolsheviks got a big enough bounty on her pretty little head to have half the hunters in the Earth sphere after her, but they can't find one crumb of her anywhere."   
  
"So, you don't where to find her?" Duo asked.  
  
"Not a fuckin' clue, kid. She's still on L1, I know that, but where on L1," he shrugged, "well, you're guess is as good as mine."  
  
"You ever meet her?" Heero asked, in his usual cool monotone.   
  
"Yeah, you'd probably like her, kid." He nodded at Heero. "She doesn't talk much. Real smart kid, too, good with computers and all that shit. Course, that's what got her into this little mess."   
  
Heero searched the older man's face. Something about the way he said that made Heero think that Nezumi was rather good acquaintance of John's. "Sounds like you know her rather well," he stated coolly.  
  
"No, better then anyone else around here."   
  
Heero's usual scowled deepened. The ambiguous reply gave him all the more reason to suspect that John had been lying when he said he didn't know where Nezumi had hidden herself. Heero casually withdrew his gun from his jacket, and pointed it with a steady hand at John's head. Duo decided to follow suit.  
  
"Where is she?" John did not look surprised to see Heero draw a gun on him, but the Japanese pilot could see the fear in his eyes that was a natural part of being on the wrong end of a deadly weapon.  
  
"I don't know, kid. I already told you that."   
  
A click sounded through the room as Heero removed the safety. "You're lying."  
  
John's face hardened into a frown, but the slight fear was still present in his eyes. "So, what if I am? Even, if I told you she'd be gone by the time you got there. Like I said that girl can hide as easy as a mouse."  
  
"Tell me where she is." There was another click as Duo removed the safety on his gun.   
  
John glanced nervously between the two pilots. He didn't know what Duo would do, but he knew that Heero would not hesitate to shot a hole in his skull. This knowledge made his decision easy to make. "She's in the Rouges' Island area. It's not far from Dr. J's old place. The people over there will be able to tell you more about where she's hiding than I can."   
  
Heero and Duo lowered their guns and put the safeties back in place. The tension left John's body in the absence of someone threatening to shoot him.  
  
"Thanks," Heero said, and left the office, Duo right behind him. When they were outside again Duo turned to face his friend.  
  
"So where do we go now?" Even though, for once, Duo knew what Heero was going to tell him.  
  
"Rouges' Island," he said and turned to head even deeper into the heart of L1's slums.  
  
*******  
  
AN: Just out of curiosity, how many of you caught the two historical allusions that I put in this chapter? Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter, and since you've finished reading it please review. 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, and I'm making nothing by writing this.  
  
AN: Hello again everyone. All right I have no idea what Heero's real name is, so many of his old acquaintances will be calling him 'kid' or 'boy.' I know a lot of people say his name was Odin Lowe Jr. but I think Heero's been through enough, I don't want to torture him any more then necessary. Anyway, I'm done rambling now. I hope you like this chapter and please review.  
  
"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known." --John Stuart Mill  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 4  
  
As Heero and Duo walked towards Rouges' Island Duo chatted about whatever came to mind. Heero had no idea what the other pilot was saying; he had stopped listening not long after they left Harper's' Ferry. He was busy recalling everything he knew about Rouges' Island.  
  
Rouges' Island was a bar deep within the underground of L1. It was a gathering place for thieves, criminals, and others that were considered socially undesirable. Due to its proximity to Dr. J's old lab it had once been popular with rebels and people working on the Gundam. Heero now added possible hiding place of Nezumi Houkyo to this list of information.  
  
The owner of Rouges' Island was Roger Williams. Heero had dealt with him on more then one occasion before Operation Meteor. Williams was a fiery man and, like many patrons of his bar, was considered a rebel by society. Heero was confident that he would not be in alliance with the Bolsheviks. Williams had long ago rejected religion as another method for society to brainwash and control people. Heero knew that this belief could possibly motivate Williams to hide Nezumi, and convince him to help the Preventers stop the Bolsheviks from carrying out their plans.  
  
Heero paused in his thinking to inspect his surroundings. He noticed a run-down warehouse up the street and his muscles involuntarily tensed and the mixed emotions resurfaced; it was Dr. J's abandoned lab. The outside of the warehouse fit in perfectly with its surroundings: graffiti on its brick walls and wood panels sealed broken windows. Heero knew the inside had once housed one of man's deadliest weapons, the Gundam and it's pilot.  
  
Duo finally noticed that Heero wasn't listening to him. Instead the other pilot was staring at something in the distance. Duo looked in the same direction as Heero, but saw nothing of interest. "Hey, Heero." the taciturn pilot came out of the memory-induced trance and looked at Duo. "What are you looking at?" Heero scowled but didn't answer. "Come on tell me. It must have been something, because you look like you've seen a ghost." Heero still didn't answer.  
  
Duo wasn't all that far from the truth by saying that Heero had seen a ghost. Seeing the outside of Dr. J's lab had forced Heero to remember what had happened inside. How he had been taken in by the scientist and stripped of his childhood, lost emotions that he was still struggling to recover, and molded him into the killing machine that had piloted Wing Gundam and Zero. As they came closer to the empty warehouse, Heero decided that he loathed that building. It was where his misery had started and housed many of the ghosts of his past. The hatred he was feeling seeped into his eyes as he glared at the building.  
  
Duo noticed the intense look of loathing, and whistled to him self, "Forget it, Heero, sorry I asked."   
  
Heero quickened his pace, so that he would pass the building quicker; he still wasn't ready to deal with the events of his past associated with L1, particularly that building. Once again he told himself that it could wait, he had a mission to do first.  
  
Heero slowed down once the warehouse was out of his line of vision. Duo gave his comrade a concerned look, but for once he said nothing. Duo knew Heero wouldn't tell him what was going on, and Duo wasn't all that sure he that wanted to know.   
  
The remainder of their journey to Rouges' Island was carried out in silence, which for Duo felt awkward. He was used to noise and sounds filling his ears, and without it he felt uncomfortable. However, he did not speak and try to fill silence like he usually did. Heero was lost deep inside his own mind, and Duo did not dare disturb him.  
  
Thankfully for Duo, their journey soon ended and they entered another dark and smelly bar, this one known as Rouges' Island. Despite the early hour several people were seated throughout the bar. Duo wondered why so many people would be in a bar at this time of day. He quickly answered his own question when he inspected the patrons more closely. These people were the scum of society, and their sorrows were far too great to wait until evening for alcohol to sooth their troubles away.  
  
A few patrons looked up from the drinks to inspect them, but quickly returned their attention to their beverages when they saw Heero's deadly scowl. The bartender also looked up, but his gaze did not turn away. Instead, his eyes widen with surprise before he spoke to the pilots. "My god, is it really you kid?" Duo simply looked bewildered for a moment before he saw Heero nod at the old man and realized that the bartender was another acquaintance of Heero. "Come on, sit down, I'll get you and your friend a drink, on the house, kid."   
  
Heero shook his head. "I need to talk with Roger."   
  
The bartender nodded. "Yeah, sure, he's in his office. Just follow me." The bartender led them into a small back room, where a large burly man sat frowning at a computer screen. The man looked up at the door when the bartender opened the door. "Roger, you'd never guess who just walked in." Roger obviously did not agree with the bartender's assumption and decided to guess.  
  
"Heero Yuy," He said as the bartender stepped back to reveal the two Preventers standing behind him. "That's the name you're going by these days isn't it, kid?" Heero nodded as he stepped into the office.   
  
The bartender frowned. "How did you guess?"   
  
Roger smiled. "I have sources, now get back to the bar." The bartender obediently returned to the front of the building. Roger turned his attention to Heero. "I heard that the Preventers had sent someone to L1, but I'd never though you'd come back."   
  
Heero's eyes narrowed into slits. "Do you know why we're here?"   
  
Roger nodded and waved at the chairs in front of his desk. Heero and Duo accepted the offered seats. "You're looking for Nezumi."   
  
Heero nodded. "Do you know where she is?"  
  
"I do, but why don't you tell me exactly what the Preventers want with her first."  
  
"We're suppose to keep her away from the Bolsheviks."   
  
Roger raised a spectacle eyebrow, "That's it? You guys aren't going to pump her for information to use against the Bolsheviks?" Heero nodded and Roger frowned "You are either lying or don't know that much about the situation."   
  
Heero shrugged. "Our orders are to protect her from the Bolsheviks." Roger nodded and leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. Silence came over the room as Roger considered what step to take next.   
  
Duo finally broke the silence. "Where is she?" Roger looked up from his thoughts when the young man spoke. "Heero and I are the good guys here, we just want to protect her from the Bolsheviks. So just tell us where she is so that we can do our jobs."   
  
Roger shook his head. "It's not as easy as good guy, bad guy. Nezumi isn't going to like the Preventers protecting her anymore then she would like the Bolsheviks capturing her."   
  
A slightly confused look settled onto Duo's face. "What does she have against the Preventers?"   
  
Roger clicked his tongue while he shook his head. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him that the Preventers didn't know with whom they were dealing. "Do you even know why she left the Bolsheviks?"   
  
Duo thought, for a moment, about what he knew of the situation. He had not considered Nezumi's possible motives for leaving the Bolsheviks. To him the Bolsheviks were simply the bad guys, and he had only pondered why anyone would join them in the first place.   
  
Finally, Duo shook his head, and Roger continued. "One of the main reasons she left was because she realized that communism didn't work. She tried really hard to make those little communes use communism, but it just wouldn't work. The people would always get greedy and be jealous of each other. Eventually, she just got fed up and left the whole damn organization. She still doesn't support capitalism, which is why she won't like you Preventers trying to help her."  
  
"What does she have against capitalism? It works."  
  
"I asked her that once. She said that the little guys always gets left out in capitalism, that the government always becomes money hungry and forgets about the poor folk."  
  
Heero, who had been silently listening to the conversion, considered this new information on their target. If what Roger said was true it would prove difficult to convince Nezumi to trust them. After all, a pro-capitalism government controlled by the upper class wrote his and Duo's paychecks. There was one thing that Heero still wanted to know. "What were her other reasons for leaving?"  
  
"She didn't like it when the Bolsheviks started playing around with religion. She told the higher ups that it was a bad idea, and had a nasty fight with some of them about it."   
  
Heero frowned slightly. It appeared as if this girl had known the leaders of the Bolsheviks, and she might have even had had some power within the organization. He definitely needed to know more about this girl. "I want to talk with her," he said suddenly. A slight look of surprise crossed Roger's face. He had been expecting Heero to demand her location, not a chat. Duo simply stared at Heero, baffled at the notion that Heero would actually want to talk with someone.   
  
"What for?"   
  
Heero quickly thought about this, he really wasn't sure why himself. "I just want to meet her. She sounds...interesting."   
  
Roger nodded. "That can be arranged." He turned around to face a vid phone and made a call. The volume on the phone was low, and Roger talked in whispers so that the Gundam pilots couldn't make out what he was saying. The call was short, and when he was done he got up and headed for the office door. "Come on, I'll take you to her."  
  
Heero and Duo followed him out of the office and though a maze of dark hallways. They made so many turns and walked up and down so many stairs that after awhile Duo felt vaguely dizzy.   
  
The twists and turns of the journey didn't bother Heero in the least. He was focused on his meeting with Nezumi. He had assumed that she was just some lost soul who had been sucked into the Bolsheviks' plot for domination. It looked as if that assumption had been very wrong. She might have played an important role among the leaders of the Bolsheviks. This recent discovery made it all the more obvious why the Bolsheviks were so desperate to find her. A former leader on the loose would be very dangerous to the Bolsheviks' plans.  
  
They came to a stop in front of door with the dull brass numbers C5 nailed to the front. Roger turned to face them, and gave Heero a hard searching glare. "Don't shoot her, Heero." He warned the younger man. "If you can convince her that not all capitalist are blood sucking bastards she just might help you Preventers stop whatever the Bolsheviks are planning."   
  
Heero nodded and moved his hand away from his gun to show Roger that he did not intend to kill Nezumi on the spot. Roger noticed the gesture and opened the door.   
  
Behind the door was the living room of a small apartment, and by the far wall, staring out a window, stood a teenage girl. The girl turned to face the newcomers, and greeted them with a look of slight curiosity in her slate blue eyes.   
  
"Heero Yuy and," Roger paused to think of Duo's name, "some other kid, this is Nezumi Houkyo."   
  
Duo became slightly miffed that he had been introduced as 'some other kid.' "I have a name, you know."   
  
Roger shrugged. "Yeah, and I don't know it, kid."   
  
Duo huffed, and walked over to Nezumi to introduce himself properly. He offered his hand to the young girl before him. "The name's Duo Maxwell." Nezumi took his offered hand into her own much smaller one. Duo raised her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and finished his introduction with a cheeky grin. The girl merely raised her eyebrows in amusement. She then turned her attention to the other young man in the room, who still stood with Roger not far from the door.  
  
"I was informed that you wished to speak with me." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.  
  
"Yeah," Heero said. "I do."  
  
*******  
  
AN: It's late now right now so I need to stop writing and go to bed. Don't worry you'll find out how Heero's talk with Nezumi goes in the next chapter. Unfortunately, today is the last day of my long weekend, so I'm not going to be able to write the next chapter for a few days. I'm hoping that I'll be able to write it Friday or Saturday and post it on Sunday. Anyway, please go review my fic since you're done reading now. Bye! 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Do I really need to tell you that I don't own it?  
  
"What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers." --Kurt Vonnegut in "Slaughter House Five"  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"I was informed that you wished to speak with me." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.  
  
"Yeah," Heero said. "I do."   
  
Nezumi nodded and took a seat on a sofa; she gestured for Heero and Duo to do like wise. Roger went into a separate room to give the pilots and Nezumi some privacy while they talked. Once they were seated silence reigned in the room. Duo fidgeted and waited for Heero to say something, after all Heero was the one who wanted this meeting. Heero remained silent, now that he had his target in front of him he had no idea what to say to her. Instead, he gave Nezumi a hard searching stare, which, surprisingly, she easily returned, and sized her up.  
  
She was young, still in her mid-teens. Heero could see the outline of her small, thin body through her loose shirt and jeans. Fine dark brown locks fell to her shoulder and framed her pale face, and long bangs fell into her gray-blue eyes. There was no commanding presence about her, and her voice had been soft, not at all suited to persuading people to her cause with fiery speeches as many great leaders could. However, there was a cool quick look in her eyes that suggested intelligence and confidence. Overall, Nezumi Houkyo looked rather unremarkable; definitely not what one would imagine a former leader of a communist cult would look like.  
  
Duo sat there, silently observing the staring contest, until he couldn't take the silence anymore. He said the first thing that popped into his head, which also happened to be one of the stupidest things he could say, and he regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. "So what kind of name is Nezumi? Were your parents drunk when they came up with it?"   
  
Heero wanted to slap his friend in the head for the idiocy of the question, but remained in his seat and settled for a glare at his comrade. Nezumi simply raised an eyebrow at Duo. When she didn't speak for a moment, Duo started to get nervous, afraid that he had just offended someone who had a number of loyal followers willing to kill anyone who offended their leader. Finally, she spoke and Duo let out a breath of relief that he didn't remember holding.  
  
"It's not my real name. It's a nickname my brother gave me."   
  
Duo was even more relieved to note that there was not a hint of annoyance or anger in her small voice when she spoke. "So what's your real name?"  
  
"I'll tell you my real name as soon as your friend tells me his."   
  
Duo became dumbfounded and looked between Heero and Nezumi. He, of course, knew that Heero Yuy wasn't his friend's real name, but that wasn't exactly common knowledge. It certainly wasn't something that she was supposed to know.   
  
Heero scowled slightly. "How do you know Heero isn't my name?"   
  
"You Preventers need a better security system on your network," she replied with an innocent smile.   
  
Heero's scowl deepened. "You can hack into the Preventers' network?"   
  
Nezumi nodded, "Why else wouldn't you have any information on the Bolsheviks. I had been deleting all of it until I left."   
  
Heero considered what he had heard, and knew there had to be truth to it. He had been surprised that the Preventers knew so little of the Bolsheviks because the Preventers had a very good intelligence department. Bolsheviks hackers tampering with the system would explain the lack of information on the group. "Then I assume you know why we're here."   
  
She nodded, "I don't need Preventers to protecting me so just go back to Earth."   
  
"Hey, babe," Duo said, "this isn't an offer you can turn down. Heero and I have a mission, so we're going to protect you whether you like it or not. Besides, Heero would never leave mission uncompleted."   
  
"This is not a mission that you need to do. My life isn't in danger."   
  
Duo nearly let his jaw hit the floor. "Uh, excuse me, but in case you haven't noticed there are some wacko communist people trying to kill you."  
  
"They're not trying to kill me. They want me because they're afraid I'll leak out their plan, which isn't a problem since I have no intention of telling anyone or stopping them."  
  
"Hold on a minute there. You know what they're planning to do, but you're not going to stop them OR tell us about it?" She nodded. "Would you mind telling me why? Because I thought that you didn't like communism anymore."  
  
"Communism doesn't work, so their plan won't succeed. Besides, they will never have the support they require. Eventually, they will either stage a rebellion and fail miserably or simply disappear from existence."  
  
"But what if you're wrong?" Heero finally spoke up. "They might gain the support they need, and then they'll be war again."  
  
"They'll never get the kind of support that they require, and they need a lot more then my help. So I don't see how protecting me is going to stop a war."  
  
"Are you sure?" Heero asked. "If the only reason they want you is to keep you quiet they could easily silence you with a bullet. I think you're far more important to the Bolsheviks than you're letting on." Nezumi shrugged in an effort to seem at ease with the situation. However, Heero had seen the quick glare she had sent him.  
  
"Perhaps, I am important to their plan, but that doesn't change anything. I am already being protected so I don't really need your help." She stood up from her perch on the sofa. "Now, unless there is something else you wish to discuss with me this conversation is over." She turned and started to walk toward a nearby door, but Heero was up and firmly holding her wrist before she could reach it.   
  
"They'll find you eventually if you just keep hiding like this. Roger won't be able to protect you forever." She gave him a cold glare, and had Heero been anyone else he would have been intimated by it. He wasn't anyone else, and he stood his ground by giving her his own glare.  
  
"And I suppose that you can?"   
  
He nodded stiffly.  
  
She was silent for a moment as she thought over the Preventer's mission. They said they just wanted to protect her, but she knew that it had to be a lie. They just wanted her to trust them so that she would go with them. Then they would use her for information. They would use her the same way the Bolsheviks had used her. At least that's what Nezumi thought would happen.   
  
Finally, she shook her head and somehow managed to free her wrist of Heero's grasp. She glared at him again. "No, you aren't any better then they are." She quickly left the room before Heero could stop her again.  
  
Duo let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, that went well," he muttered sarcastically.   
  
Roger then reappeared from the room he had entered earlier. "Come on," he said. "I'll take you back to the bar."  
  
Heero and Duo silently followed Roger out of the apartment. Their journey continued in silence for several minutes until Roger decided to speak. "You're right, Heero," he started as both young men looked up with interest. "She is more important to the Bolsheviks than she told you."  
  
"How so?" Duo asked.  
  
"Before she left she was in charge of most of the Bolsheviks intelligence system. Those spies and hackers were more loyal to her than the Bolsheviks." Roger smiled a bit. "She really believed in what the Bolsheviks were doing, the girl can't lie for shit either, so they trusted her and were loyal to her alone. When she left the loyalty of those spies was shaken, because they knew why Nezumi had left. After that more and more intelligence agents stopped obeying orders, and a lot left the whole organization. The Bolsheviks need her to get the spies and hackers under control, otherwise their plan won't work."  
  
"So do you know what their plan is?"   
  
"All I know is that they wanted to have some sort of massive virus on government computers. Then they were going to stage a coupe or something while the government was still down. I'm really not sure, I had to get Nezumi pretty drunk to even get her to tell me that much."  
  
They soon reached the door to Roger's office, and stopped. "I might be able to help you out," Roger said as he leaned against the doorframe. "We think the Bolsheviks might have caught on to her hiding place. We need to move her some place new and soon. Get a car or whatever you need to take her to where you're hiding, and be here tonight at midnight. We'll knock her out with some sleeping pills or something so that you can transport her without any trouble. After that you'll just have to keep her away from the Bolsheviks."   
  
Heero and Duo considered this offer. They looked at each other and silently agreed that it was the easiest way for them to get Nezumi. Heero nodded at Roger and stuck out his hand. "It's a deal," he told the older man, who solemnly took his hand.  
  
"Just be careful with her," he warned them. "Despite what she told you back there, this really could start a war."  
  
******  
  
When Heero and Duo returned to their townhouse they were greeted by a horrible smell. Duo sniffed the air, trying to figure out the source of the foul odor. His nose lead him straight to the kitchen where the ingredients of his long forgotten omelet lay exactly where he had had left them that morning. Upon further inspection Duo found that the eggs had started to rot. Heero appeared in the kitchen doorway and frowned slightly as he looked over the decaying omelet ingredients.  
  
"Eck, this stuff smells worse then shit!" Duo exclaimed as he poked at the egg carton as if he expected the eggs to have mutated during his absence.   
  
Heero simply glared at Duo. "Why didn't you put this stuff away before we left?"  
  
"Well, excuse me! But I only left this stuff out because you were in such a hurry to leave."   
  
Heero ignored Duo's accusing tone and turned around. "Just clean it up," he said as he left, "and go buy more eggs."   
  
Duo turned to face the assembled ingredients. "So much for the omelet," he muttered as he grabbed the milk carton, which had been sitting on the counter next to the eggs. He carefully sniffed at it to make sure it hadn't gone bad, and took a gulp right out of the carton when he decided that it was still good. Unfortunately for Duo, the strong odor of rotten eggs had masked the smell of sour milk, and he quickly spit it out on to the floor. "Ah, fuck! Now, I have to get more milk too." With that Duo set out on his new mission: destroy the rotten eggs and sour milk.  
  
While Duo was busy cursing the eggs and milk for rottenness, Heero went upstairs to his room. He had to arrange for a car, which he could easily do by calling the local Preventers office, and inform Lady Une of the new developments in their mission.   
  
The fact that their target was not a simple hacker was probably something that Une would like to know. Come to think of it, she would probably appreciate it if he told her that Nezumi had broken into the Preventers security system on more than one occasion, and that the girl was an important part of the Bolsheviks' plan. The fact that Nezumi didn't trust the Preventers might be useful, too.  
  
After arranging a car for that night Heero mentally shifted through his new information and came to two conclusions. One, Nezumi wasn't going to make herself very easy to protect, and two, Lady Une was going to be more than a little pissed off.  
  
*******  
  
AN: I hope you liked the chapter. I blew off my history, physics, and english homework Thursday night to write most of it. Not that it mattered because my physics and english teachers weren't there Friday. Which reminds me, special thanks to my friend Ausie, who I am currently in the process of corrupting, for reviewing this fic. I don't know when the next chapter will be out. I have science horizons next weekend, and I need to finish my project. Anyway, please review, I appreciate all comments. 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Oh, yeah I own Gundam Wing, just a few more videos and I'll have the whole series.  
  
"It's a miracle any of us make it to the drinking age without having gone insane." --Mark Salzman  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 6  
  
After night had fallen on L1 Roger left Rouges' Island in the care of the bartender and went through the maze of tunnels that led to the basement of the apartment building Nezumi was hidden in. He climbed the old creaky stairs up to the third floor, and went down the dark hallway until he reached apartment C5.   
  
When he entered the small apartment he saw several rough looking men sitting around the living room playing cards. The men looked up, but returned their attention to their game when they saw that it was a friend at the door.  
  
"How's she doing?"   
  
One of the men shrugged. "She hasn't come out since you left with those Preventers. She hasn't eaten either."  
  
Roger frowned and walked over to the kitchen where a small pot of stew sat on the stove, Nezumi's uneaten dinner. He poured some of the thick stew into a bowl, and took a small bottle of pills out of his pocket. He took two of the little white pills and stirred them into the stew. One of the poker players noticed, and raised his eyebrows with an unspoken question.  
  
"Sleeping pills," Roger said and the man nodded, but did not return his attention to the game so Roger explained. "I have an arrangement with the Preventers. They're going to take care of her for now on. I don't want Nezumi giving them any trouble when they come to get her."   
  
The man nodded again. "You sure that's a good idea?"  
  
"The kid was right when he said that we won't be able to protect her forever. She'll be safer with them." Roger wasn't sure that the other man agreed, but he said nothing more about the subject.   
  
Roger took the drugged dinner and went into Nezumi's bedroom. She was sitting on her bed staring out the window, deep in thought. Her legs were curled up to her chest and her chin rested on her knees. She didn't seem to notice him when he came in, and he stood there for a moment, observing her, after he put the food down on her desk.  
  
He had known Nezumi since she was little girl, and had been close friends with her father until his death. She had always been a quiet girl, always kept to her self, this quality coupled with her size had earned her the name Mouse from her older brother. In that respect she had not changed at all. However, Roger knew she had changed in other ways.  
  
He tired to think of the reason why she had changed so much. He knew it was not her parent's death; she had still been young then. Possibly her time among Dr. J's team of hackers, but that wasn't it ether. That had merely brought out her natural abilities with computers. He narrowed it down to the time she had spent with the Bolsheviks and her foolish brother, who was still among their ranks. It had to be that. She had left as little Mouse, the shy quiet little hacker, and had returned as Nezumi Houkyo, quiet, intelligent, and properly the most opinionated person he had ever meet, including himself. It briefly occurred to him that Nezumi may have simply grown up. Roger shook his head; there was no point in trying to figure out why she had changed. The only thing that mattered was that she had changed.  
  
He pulled up her desk chair next to end of her bed, and when she looked up from her thoughts he handed her the bowl of stew. She accepted the bowl but made no move to eat any of it. She simply looked at it. After a few minutes of silence she looked back up at Roger.  
  
"Is Heero that boy from Dr. J's lab?"   
  
Roger nodded. "You didn't know that?" Nezumi was normally very well informed, and always knew what was going on. She was the one that had told Roger that Preventers were looking for her.  
  
"I wasn't sure," she whispered. The silence returned, and Nezumi still made no move to eat her dinner. Roger frowned slightly. He worried about her. She was so small and thin that he was worried that she didn't eat enough. When she fell into those thoughtful moods of hers it was even worse: she practically stopped eating. It was as if this necessity of life simply slipped her mind because she was so engrossed in her own mind.   
  
"Aren't you going to eat?"   
  
Nezumi shook her head. "I'm not hungry."  
  
"You're gonna wither away into nothing if you don't start eating more."  
  
"I eat enough," she said defensively.  
  
"No you don't," he said with a stern, fatherly look. Nezumi glared back, she'd be damned before she allowed Roger to lecture her on her eating habits again. Unfortunately, her stomach was on Roger's side this time and let out a low growl. Nezumi accepted defeat with a quiet sigh, and started to eat. Roger carefully watched her until she had finished the drugged stew.   
  
"Happy now?"  
  
Roger nodded. "Very. Now get some rest, we'll be moving you again soon." Nezumi glared at him for giving her another order before nodding and resuming her position staring out the window again. Roger watched her for a minute.   
  
Her eyes were already starting to feel heavy and were half lidded with sleepiness. When she gave a little yawn Roger took the bowl to the kitchen sink. He went back into the little bedroom to check on Nezumi. She was curled up into a little ball on her side, fast asleep. He carefully laid a blanket over her small form. He sighed as he looked at her. She looked so peaceful while asleep, as if she was still the little girl he had once known.   
  
"I'm sorry little Mouse," he said, his voice heavy with guilt, "but this is for the best." With that he left her alone to sleep.  
  
*******  
  
Heero and Duo sat in their borrowed Preventers' car in a dark alley behind Rouges' Island. The engine was turned off so as not to attract attention and the cool night air was quickly seeping into the car. Heero calmly glanced at his watch. It was eleven fifty-five, almost time for Roger to hand over Nezumi.  
  
Heero replayed the events of the afternoon and evening in his mind. After another interesting meal with Duo they had gone to the local Preventers office. They were no longer concerned about the Bolsheviks discovering them. The group probably already knew of their presence anyway. While they were at the office Heero had called Lady Une to inform her of the new developments in their mission.  
  
He had been right in his assumption that she would not be happy that the Bolsheviks had hacked into the Preventers' network. When he had informed her of Nezumi's former position she had warned him to be careful with her, and told him that the girl could be a useful ally against the Bolsheviks. Heero had tactfully left out the part of Nezumi's dislike for the Preventers and capitalists; he did not wish to anger Une any more then necessary.  
  
There was quick rasp on the car's rear window and a shadowy figure walked up next to the front door. Heero and Duo got out of the car; the man gestured for them to follow.  
  
"Roger wants to speak to you first." The man led them into the back of Rouges' Island and into Roger's office.  
  
Heero noticed Nezumi was wrapped up in a large sweatshirt jacket and out cold on a small couch. Roger was there pacing in his office, but he stopped when the trio entered. He glanced over at them with a troubled look on his face. "She's all ready to go," he said. "That's all her stuff right there." He gestured to a couple of duffel bags on the floor next to the couch. Heero and Duo silently nodded. Duo walked over and slung both bags over his shoulders. Heero picked up Nezumi, and quickly noted that his cargo was very light  
  
"Is that it?" Roger nodded in response to Heero's question. The man who had led them into the office started to escort them back to their waiting car. Heero was just about to follow him out when he felt a rough hand clasp his shoulder. He turned his head to see Roger sending him a hard glare.  
  
"You better take care of her, kid," he warned. "If anything happens to my little mouse, you'll be sorry that you ever got involved in this mess." Heero stared back and nodded at the older man. Roger searched Heero's blank expression for a moment before he let his shoulder go, and gave him a stiff nod.   
  
Heero left the office and retraced his steps to the car. Duo had already turned it on, and was sitting behind the wheel. The other man opened a car door for Heero. He placed Nezumi in the back seat before climbing in next to Duo in the front. With their new passenger secure Duo took off.   
  
Neither Duo nor Heero spoke as they drove back to their safe house. Heero because it was simply in his nature to be silent, and Duo because he did not wish to wake their passenger. So their ride proceeded in silence for a few minutes until Duo noticed something in the rear view mirror.  
  
"That car has been behind us for a while."   
  
Heero frowned in response. "Turn left up here." Duo complied with the order when he reached the intersection. A few seconds later another car turned left. Heero glared at it in one of the mirrors. "Go right." Duo turned right into a small alleyway. "Right and then left." Duo steered the car through the maze of allies in between the apartment buildings, the other car followed. "Stop the car."  
  
"Why? We need to lose them, not talk to them." Despite his protests Duo did stop the car and put it in park.   
  
Heero got out and watched the other car come to stop not too far behind their own. "I don't plan to talk."  
  
Duo came out in time to see two shadowy figures exit the car. The figures quickly walked towards the pilots.  
  
"Give us the girl, and you won't get hurt." The owner of the voice drew a gun from his coat and pointed it at Heero. The other pointed a gun at Duo.   
  
Heero, true to word, said nothing. He pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the speaker. He aimed it quickly and accurately, and fired. The other man dropped his weapon as Heero's bullet ripped through his hand. He clutched his maimed hand to his chest and glared at the young Preventer before rushing at him. The man pulled his unharmed hand back ready to strike, but Heero had years of training on his side, and easily sidestepped the man's attack. Heero kicked the other man's feet out from under him, and the man crashed headfirst onto the pavement. The force of the fall knocked the man out, and he lay quietly on the concrete.  
  
Meanwhile, the other man had tried to attack Duo. However, the former Gundam pilot was too quick for him. After being thrown back a few feet, compliments of Duo, he got up and rushed at the young man. Duo grabbed his attacker's arm and used the extra momentum to flip the man onto his back. Duo pointed his gun directly at the man's head and glared down at him. At that moment it was obvious, especially to the man on the ground, why Duo had once been known as the god of death.  
  
Heero, having just taken care of his own attacker, approached Duo. He knelt down next to the man, and stared at him. All emotion was absent from Heero's face, and the defeated man found this detached look just as unsettling as the god of death's glare.  
  
"Who do you work for?" he asked using his cold monotone.   
  
The frighten man obediently answered in hopes that they would spare his life. "The Bolsheviks. They're the ones that want her," he stammered.  
  
"What do they want with her?"  
  
"I-I don't know."   
  
"You're lying." The man's eyes widen with fear at the accusation. "Tell us the truth."  
  
"I don't know. There are rumors but that's it. They just told me to bring the Mouse back alive."  
  
"What do the rumors say?"  
  
"There was something about her having a fight with her brother before she left. And a virus, they want her to make a computer virus. But that's all I've heard, I swear." Heero nodded and reached behind the man's head. He pushed a pressure point on his neck and the man's body went limp. He stood up and got back in the car. Duo holstered his gun and started driving once he was back in the car. Heero quickly became lost in thought as Duo wove his way back onto the main streets. His mind drifted to Roger's parting words.  
  
Roger had called Nezumi "little mouse." There was something about that nickname that sounded familiar to him. He knew that it was not because Lady Une had called her Mouse when she gave them the mission. It was something else, something further back in his memory. He thought back, trying to figure out where he had heard it before, while carefully avoiding many painful memories. After several minutes of combing through his mind he still could not place it.  
  
There was something else that caught his attention so he turned his attention to this new topic. The man had said something about Nezumi having a fight with her bother, and he remembered her telling them that her brother had given her name.   
  
He thought this over more; the file on her had said nothing about any family. However, the girl had mostly likely manufactured the file since Nezumi was not even her real name. If Nezumi did have a brother that was still a part of the Bolsheviks it might explain why she had refused to have any thing to do with the Preventers. Even if she had fought with him before leaving it was unlikely that she would want her brother to get in trouble. With this revelation her earlier actions made a bit more sense to Heero.   
  
By the time Duo pulled to a stop in front of their home Heero had returned to contemplating where he had heard the nickname "little mouse" before. He paused his thoughts as Duo got out of the car and carried Nezumi's bags into the house. However, they started to plague him again as he carried the source of his pondering out of the car and into the spare bedroom.  
  
He set her down on the bed to continue her drugged sleep in peace. Duo passed by the room just as Heero was walking for the door. "Ah, come on, Heero, you can't just leave her like that." Heero quickly glanced around the room and saw nothing wrong. "You didn't even cover her with the blanket." He looked over his shoulder at Nezumi's unconscious form. Duo had been right; the only covering she had was the oversized sweatshirt jacket.   
  
He went back to the bed's side and pulled the covers over her body. He looked down at Nezumi; she looked so young and innocent. The scene before him made words from a tongue he had not spoken in years fall from his mouth before he could stop them. Once the words were said he wondered why it felt like he had said them before. They made Duo wonder what the hell his comrade was saying. The strange words were, "Oyasumi nasai, chisai nezumi."  
  
********  
  
"Oyasumi nasai, chisai nezumi" means "Good night, little mouse." in Japanese  
  
AN: And that concludes chapter six. I hoped you enjoyed it. I've already started chapter 7 so it shouldn't be too long before I post that. Many thanks to Jessi-chan, Kiriko, and Black Dragon Eyes for reviewing this fic. I really appreciate your comments. And I do plan to do more into Heero's past, I just wanted to get a few other things done first. Bye for now everyone! 


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
"McDonald's he thought. There is no longer any such thing as McDonald's hamburger. He passed out." --from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Heero stared at the ceiling of his dark room. He had gone to bed almost two hours ago, but he had not been able to go to sleep. He was still trying to remember where he had heard the name little Mouse used before. He had been unsuccessfully combing his memories. However, he had put a mental block around his memories of his time with Dr. J. It was doubtful that was where he had heard the name anyway.   
  
Dr. J was not the kind of man to take a stray kid off the streets, not unless he had a very good reason. The only reason he had taken Heero in was to train him to use the Gundam. There was no reason for Dr. J to take Nezumi in, was there? Heero considered this possibly.   
  
The only skill that she had that would be useful to Dr. J was her hacking abilities. It was possible that Dr. J had wanted to use these skills, and had taken her in. However, this would also mean that Nezumi was either an orphan or a runaway; Dr. J may have been a little crazy, but he was not a kidnapper. The idea of Nezumi not having parents seemed to fit with what he knew of her background. A sixteen-year-old girl is not the leader of a communistic rebel organization if she has a happy, loving family.  
  
Heero let it stop at that, and decided that he must have heard one of Dr. J's hackers or other workers talking about the little mouse at some time or another. His mind was satisfied enough with this answer to allow him a few hours of rest, and Heero took advantage of this much sought after opportunity.   
  
*******  
  
Bright rays of artificial sunshine flooded into the small bedroom. The rays lit up the room with a warm glow, and cast their yellow light onto the face of the room's sole occupant, a sleeping teenage girl. Slate blue eyes opened in response to the bright yellow light and surveyed their surroundings.   
  
A feeling of panic rushed through Nezumi when she didn't recognize the room. She sat up, her eyes wildly darted around the room in search of some familiar object. The only familiar object in the room were the two duffel bags that lay on the floor next to the bed. She found some comfort in the bags' presence when she remembered Roger telling her that she would be moving again.  
  
However, what comfort she found in this thought was lost when it occurred to her that she could not remember the move, and she knew that her dull headache was a telltale sign of a drugged slumber. The panic rose up again and her skin grew cold as possibilities rushed through her mind. Roger would never try to drug her just to move her to a new hiding place so she knew that she was no longer among her allies. The most likely situation was that one her supposed guards had drugged her and turned her over to the Bolsheviks.  
  
Duo walked by the room's open door to see a very bewildered Nezumi staring off into space. "Hey, sleeping beauty. So nice of you to grace us with your presence."  
  
Nezumi came out of her reserve at the sound of Duo's cheerful greeting. Her brow furrowed slightly when she recognized him as one of her Preventer visitors from the day before. A multitude of questions entered her mind, but finally one triumphed over the others and exited her mouth: "What's going on?"  
  
"Well, Heero and I had a little chat with Roger yesterday after we left you. We all agreed that it would be best if Heero and I take care of you for now. So you're at our place now."  
  
Nezumi swung her feet to the edge of the bed and stood while Duo explained her new situation to her. "I resent being thought of as someone who needs to be taken care of."  
  
Duo shrugged from his spot leaning up against the door frame. "Too bad, babe, because that's what's happening."  
  
"You call me babe one more time and I'll hurt you where it counts," she said, and what malice she lacked in her soft voice was made up for with a steely glare.  
  
Duo winced at the thought. "You haven't had a lot of boyfriends have you?"  
  
"I've been a bit preoccupied with other matters."  
  
"Well here let me give you some advice," Duo said. "If you ever want to get a boyfriend stop threatening to kick guys in the balls."  
  
Nezumi rolled her eyes. "And if you ever want a girl to not think that you're a womanizing pig don't call her babe."  
  
"I'll be sure to remember that," Duo said. "Now, why don't I give you the grand tour?" Duo chivalrously offered Nezumi his arm. The girl couldn't help but smile a little and relax a bit as she accepted Duo's arm. The perpetually cheerful God of death escorted his guest down the narrow hallway.  
  
"So what's behind all these doors?"  
  
Duo frowned momentarily and shrugged. "I don't really know. We haven't even lived here for two days so I haven't been able to explore the place quiet yet."  
  
Due to Duo's lack of knowledge the tour mainly consisted of showing Nezumi the bathroom and opening a few random doors to see what the rooms held, which wasn't much. However, they did find a room filled with computers, communications equipment, and weapons that they both spent several minutes inspecting. Duo's grand tour ended in the kitchen where Heero was searching the fridge for a drink. The taciturn pilot greeted the pair with a nod. Nezumi returned the simple greeting while Duo happily chatted about their discoveries with the air. After a few minutes of this Duo paused and turned to Nezumi. "You want some breakfast? I could make you an omelette or something," he offered.  
  
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea," Heero commented dryly.  
  
"Why not? I'm a good cook," Duo said defensively.  
  
"I wouldn't trust anything you cook not to kill me."  
  
"You don't trust anyone," Duo retorted.   
  
Heero merely shrugged, "That doesn't change the fact that you can't cook."  
  
While Heero and Duo argued over cooking skills Nezumi made her way around the kitchen and found what she required to make a nice little breakfast. When she was done she settled down at the table with a piece of strawberry jam covered toast and a glass of chocolate milk. She quietly observed Duo defend his cooking abilities while she ate.  
  
"I'm a better cook then you, Yuy!" Duo practically shouted. Nezumi stifled a laugh while she chewed.   
  
"So?"  
  
"SO," Duo exclaimed, "you have no right to criticize my cooking skills when you can't do any better. SO I am now going to fix Nezumi some breakfast." He turned back to Nezumi, "Now, what would..." He trailed off when he noticed that Nezumi already had her breakfast in front of her. A confused look settled onto Duo's features, "When the hell did you do that?" Heero smirked; he had seen Nezumi prepare her breakfast while Duo had been absorbed in defending his abilities in the kitchen.  
  
"While you were arguing with Heero." Nezumi then ate her last bit of toast and washed it down with the remainder of her chocolate milk. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I'll go make use of that bathroom you showed me earlier."  
  
Duo shook his head while Nezumi left the kitchen. "I didn't even know that she'd gotten up." Duo then saw the smirk on Heero's face. "You think all of this is funny. Well, I'll prove to you that I am a good cook by making dinner for everybody tonight."  
  
"Fine, but if it has gummy worms I'm not eating it," Heero agreed in his usual flat tone.  
  
"What's wrong with gummy worms?"  
  
"You put them on a sandwich."  
  
"So? It adds a fruity flavor to it."   
  
Heero did not respond as he walked out of the kitchen. The merits of using gummy worms in cooking really wasn't a conversion that he wanted to have.  
  
*******  
  
Later that afternoon Heero went upstairs to inspect the equipment room that Duo and Nezumi had found earlier. As he came closer to the room he heard the faint sound of rapid typing coming from behind the door. He knew that Duo was downstairs busily trying to decide what to make for dinner, and that meant that Nezumi had to be the one behind the door. He quietly opened the door so that she wouldn't notice his entrance. He silently leaned against the doorframe and watched the little brunette while she worked. The image on the screen was constantly changing, but Heero was certain that he saw the name Bolshevik flash on it more then once.  
  
She went through most of the Bolshevik's network to see what the group was up to. It appeared as if nothing had changed since the last time she had performed one of her little check ups. They still had a large bounty on her and had paused their plans for ESUN until further notice. After she had found the information she wanted she withdrew from the network and shut down the computer. When she turned around she wasn't very surprised to see Heero standing in the doorway carefully watching her.   
  
"Checking up on some old friends?"   
  
Nezumi simply nodded in response. She moved towards the door, expecting Heero to move from his post so that she could get through. However, she was forced to stop when he remained in his spot. She stared into his midnight blue eyes demanding that he either move or explain himself with her blue-gray ones.   
  
Heero choose the latter: "I knew you." His flat tone made Nezumi unsure if it was a question or a statement so she simply nodded again. "How?" he asked.  
  
Her brow furrowed slightly at his simple question. It had only been a few years ago. How could he have already forgotten about the time before Operation Meteor, but then again it had been a long few years. Finally she told him her answer, "Dr. J's lab."  
  
Heero silently absorbed this information. He had been right; she was from Dr. J's old lab. Yet even with this information he could not remember her, and if she was from that painful span of time he didn't really want to remember what part she had played in it.  
  
Nezumi could only guess at what Heero was thinking; he still wore his blank mask. However she was a very good guesser. "When did you start trying to forget your past?"  
  
"I'm not trying to forget," he answered. "I've been trying to not remember."  
  
"Is there a difference?" Heero didn't answer her question. Instead, he removed himself from the doorway and walked away from the room, his purpose for coming up stairs now forgotten as a new train of thought coursed through his mind. There was no difference, he didn't need to tell her that because she already knew. As Heero closed the door to his room Nezumi's soft voice drifted to him: "The past isn't something you can forget, Heero. Whether you like it or not you'll have to remember eventually."  
  
******** 


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Mesa no own Gundam Wing.  
  
AN: To avoid some possible confusion I want everyone to remember that Heero's old acquaintances will be calling him kid since he didn't get the code name Heero Yuy until right before he left for Earth. All right then, now go enjoy the chapter.  
  
"Truth is the degree to which something corresponds with reality." --Dan Barker  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 8  
  
When dinnertime arrived Duo was just putting the finishing touches on his culinary masterpiece. Once he was done he looked around expecting to see his roommates being drawn to the kitchen by the wonderful aroma of the meal he had prepared. However, neither Heero nor Nezumi were being led zombie-like to the dinner table. Perplexed, Duo went upstairs to find the two. Both were in their respective rooms intently working on their computers. "Come on guys it's dinner time!" he bellowed.   
  
Heero finished his task and joined Duo in the hallway in time to hear Nezumi mumble that she wasn't hungry.   
  
"Ah, come on Nezumi! Stuffing your face once in a while certainly won't hurt you. Besides, you have to judge my cooking and help me prove Heero wrong," Duo pleaded with the young hacker. He gave her his best puppy dog look, and at last she agreed to go down and eat with them.  
  
With his taste testers now accounted for and seated at the kitchen table Duo presented them with their meal. Both simply stared at it.  
  
"What?" Duo asked in alarm.  
  
"It's green," Nezumi answered as she frowned at her plate. Heero nodded his head in agreement. On his plate sat two tacos with the works: peppers, cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, and even guacamole. The strange green substance that Nezumi was currently eyeing was the guacamole, which proudly sat on top of the tacos and other toppings in all its green pasty glory.  
  
"It's guacamole, it's suppose to be green. Try it, it's good," Duo encouraged as he stuffed one of the tacos into his mouth.  
  
"I'm really not hungry." Nezumi got up from her seat as she spoke. "I'll just go back upstairs."   
  
Duo frowned as she left and concern was evident in his bright violet eyes, "She hasn't eaten since this morning. Do you think she's sick or something?"   
  
Heero shrugged. She didn't seem to be sick, and Roger would have told him if she had a serious illness so he doubted that whatever problem she had was life threatening. Besides some sleeping drugs did have an appetite decreasing side effect. However, he knew that most of the drug's side effects should have already worn off.  
  
Heero scraped the strange green paste off with his fork before trying the tacos. As it turned out, Duo actually was a good chef. Heero silently admitted that the tacos were quite tasty as he ate the second one. He took another bite and felt an unusual texture in his mouth; it felt a bit gummy. He swallowed and then inspected the remainder of his dinner. There was a gummy worm stuffed into the meat. Heero frowned and looked up at his comrade.  
  
Duo was grinning like the Cheshire cat, "I put it in there just for you Heero." Heero refused to finish his dinner after that.  
  
*******  
  
Nezumi was reading on her bed when she heard a soft knock on the door. "Come in," she said without looking up from her book. When she heard the click of the doorknob she raised her head to see who her visitor was. Instead of a person she saw something flying for her head. She easily caught the object and looked at it; it was a can of soda. She looked back up at her door to see Heero entering; he was holding something, but his hand obscured her view of the object. She gave him a slightly confused look as a greeting.  
  
Heero approached her and handed her what he held. Nezumi took the offering; it was a sandwich wrapped up in a paper napkin. She gave him another perplexed look.   
  
"You didn't eat before," he explained. Nezumi simply nodded. She expected Heero to leave now that he had completed his mission. Instead Heero took a seat on the foot of her bed. He watched her as she ate, carefully looking for any signs of illness.  
  
Nezumi noticed Heero watching her and commented while she ate, "You're just as bad as Roger." Heero said nothing, and silence reigned in the room. For some reason unknown even to herself Nezumi wanted Heero to talk. So she choice a new topic for conversation, "Why don't you want to remember the past?"  
  
Heero stared at her while he searched for an answer. "The past hurts," he answered vaguely.  
  
"A lot of things a person does in life hurts, but that shouldn't stop you." Heero mulled over words. He almost wanted to roll his eyes at how naive her advice sounded. What did she know about the pain of his past? "Don't give me that look," she scolded. "I can guess at what's going on in your head better then you think. You think I'm stupid and that I don't know what I'm talking about, but you're wrong. I know more then you give me credit for."   
  
Heero raised an eyebrow at her angry words. "And what do you know?"  
  
"That your past wasn't as bad as you make it out to be." Heero's other eyebrow went up with interest, but he said nothing. So Nezumi continued, "Your problem isn't that your entire childhood and adolescence was just one big fucked up mess. Your problem is that you only chose to see the mess; you've forced yourself to forget any of the good things that ever happened to you."  
  
"You really think that's true?" he asked calmly.  
  
"I know it's true."  
  
"How would you know that?"  
  
"Because I knew you, and you haven't changed at all." Nezumi took another bite of her sandwich, and waited for Heero to reply.  
  
His reply never came. Instead, he rose from his spot on the bed and left Nezumi alone to finish her meal. He had just added a few more items on his things to think about list.  
  
*******  
  
The only worthwhile advice Heero had ever received or given was to follow his emotions. He currently felt like taking a walk, and he had every intention of acting on this feeling. He walked past Duo on his way to the door. As he reached for his jacket Duo asked him where he was going.  
  
"Out," was the only the response that Heero gave the other pilot as he closed the door.   
  
Her words ran though his head; out of all them one simple question interested him the most: "Why don't you want to remember the past?" He had never given this matter any thought before. He had never had a reason or a desire to think of his past and had thus refused to do so, believing that the past only held pain and sorrow. After years of avoiding the subject he had somehow forgotten most of the events of his past life.  
  
But was he wrong in avoiding the past as he had? Was there a moment of happiness in his past buried deep beneath the surface of sorrow? He didn't know; he didn't even have a clue to what the answers might be.  
  
Heero wandered down the streets of the slum for a long time. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he was only vaguely aware of his surroundings. When he finally looked around, simply to see where his random steps had guided him, he saw a beaten up sign that said 'Rouges' Island' a few blocks away. His steps then guided him up to the door and inside.  
  
It was much more crowded now that it was nighttime, and the smell of bodies crushed together mixed with the regular odors of the bar. A few patrons glanced in his direction as he made his way to the bar, but most didn't. They were too involved with their drinks or hurried conversions to notice yet another person in the room.   
  
The same bartender from the day before stood chatting with customers and busily fulfilling orders, but now Roger also stood behind the bar. Heero noticed that he was involved in a heated debate with a patron as he drew closer. He took an empty stool a few seats down so that he could over hear the conversation. After the old bartender had given him his drink he tuned into what Roger was saying, "They're all idealistic fools, every single one."  
  
"Yeah, and your little mouse is the worst of the lot."  
  
Roger snorted, "That spot is reserved for her brother. Besides, she came to her senses, didn't she?"  
  
"She came back, but she still thinks the same way they do. Even if this mess does clear she'll get herself in trouble again somehow."  
  
Roger shook his head, "She knows better now."  
  
"No, she doesn't," the man countered. "She still believes in all that communism shit. We both know that she only left because she didn't like them brainwashing people with religion."  
  
"That was only one reason. I should know, I've talked with her all the time since she came back."  
  
"You're lying to yourself if you think she gave up communism completely."  
  
"I know her better than you do, and I know she's rejected all of that nonsense."  
  
"Even if you're right she'll try something and get herself in trouble with the government someday. Even if she just tries to organize a little social reform group ESUN will get all paranoid about it, send the Preventers to crush it, and then throw the little mouse in prison."  
  
Roger nodded in agreement, "You're right about that. She's too stubborn to ever let it all go, and her heart is too good to accept the fact that there will always be social injustice."  
  
The man, having won a partial victory in the debate, let the matter drop and then chose a new topic, "I heard that the kid is back."  
  
Roger nodded, "Yeah, and he hasn't changed a bit."  
  
"Still a closed book then?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm surprised he even asked for help finding Nezumi. Guess he just wanted to get this mission over with." He took a sip from his mug. "You know I tried to help him when he was over at Dr. J's all those years ago. I tried to be nice him, and show him that he didn't have to be a soldier that he could have a normal life, but he never wanted anything to do with it." Roger shook his head sadly. "So I give the kid the one thing that every soldier should have. Gave him something to protect."  
  
The man looked curiously at his drinking partner, "What do you mean?"  
  
"Every soldier needs something to protect so that they know what they're fighting for. J always told the kid he was protecting the colonies, but that's so vague and impersonal. So I gave Dr. J the one thing that I could for the kid to protect. I gave him my little mouse." A smile played on Roger's lips, "it was the only favor that kid ever accepted from anyone."  
  
Heero decided that he had heard more then enough for evening and got up from his stool after slapping a few bills onto the counter.  
  
The smile left Roger's features and was replaced by frown as he shook his head with sorrow, "And wouldn't you know it. Nicholas fouled that up too. Took away the last thing that kid had when he took his sister back." A shiver went up Roger's spine as the cold night air blew in threw the open door; Heero had just left the building.   
  
Had the Zero pilot heard this last statement he might have been one step closer to deciphering why he had hidden from his past but he hadn't. So he continued to wander through the empty streets, still unable to answer his questions, except for maybe one.  
  
When he returned to the house it was dark inside; Duo and Nezumi had gone to bed hours ago. He silently made his way upstairs. He paused in front of his door and glanced down the hall at Nezumi's. He changed his direction and silently crept into her room.  
  
Pale silver moonlight filled the room, and cast its ghostly glow onto a sleeping figure. Heero simply looked at her. Nezumi looked even smaller than usual swallowed up in the fluffy comforter with only her head and a thin arm poking out from its depths. The silver light made her look paler then normal, almost deathly pale. She looked so fragile in the moonlight; one touch might make her brake.  
  
As Heero observed her it occurred to him that such a fragile looking creature would need someone to protect her. Roger's words rang in his ears; she had been his someone to protect. She had helped give him a purpose for fighting. One could even argue a reason to live since fighting had been his life. New questions entered his mind. Why had he ever forgotten her if she had been so important to him, and why where his memories of her still blocked?  
  
If he had only heard Roger's final words he would have known, but he had already left when those words were spoken. Heero's question would be left unanswered until he could break the mental barriers that he had hid his past behind.  
  
*******  
  
AN: I really am going somewhere with all of this. If you're confused just hang on for a little while. Roger will be making an appearance in the next chapter and a lot of things will be explained. Anyway, please review, all comments are greatly appreciated. 


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: (to the tune of the oscar meyer wiener song) I wish that owned Gundam Wing. That is I'd really like to have cause if owned Gundam Wing I would filthy stinkin rich.  
  
AN: Eke, I'm horribly sorry that I haven't posted in so long. I'll try to be a bit quicker for chapter 10. Anyway, I will be basing Heero's past on the events in Episode Zero. If you haven't read this you can go to http://www.angelfire.com/rant/madmiewth/ and read it there. If you don't want to I will give a brief summary of the events of the part on Heero here.  
Heero was orphaned while still a toddler and meets up with an assign named Odin Lowe, who takes him in. When Heero is about eight years old he goes with Odin on a mission to kill General Septum. Odin fails and is killed. With his dyeing words he gives Heero his famous 'follow your emotions' advice. Thus Heero is left completely alone in the world. Sometime after that Heero meets Dr. J who asks him if he would like to pilot a Gundam and Heero agrees.   
That should be all you need to know, but I would still suggest you go read Episode Zero at some point in time.  
  
  
"Your companions are like buttons on an elevator. They will either take you up or take you down." --Unknown  
  
There Goes the World  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Duo was bored out of his mind. He had been taken from his boring office job and stuck in a townhouse with two of the quietest people in the Earth sphere. Heero had locked himself in his room after breakfast doing god knows what. Nezumi would occasionally pop up in the kitchen to get something to drink before going back to her room. During one of her little trips Duo had cornered her and had proceeded to talk to her for a whole ten minutes before she escaped to her room. That had been four hours ago, and Duo had not seen her since. He had been able to occupy himself for a while by making dinner. However, when the food was gone and the dishes were done he had become bored again, and had recently taken to pacing restlessly through the living room. He had even started counting his steps, "Two hundred and fifty eight, two fifty nine, two..." Duo stopped counting when he heard a knock on the door. He heard the knock again, and his heart filled with unimaginable joy. There was someone at the door! Finally there was a variation in the monotony of his day.  
  
He rushed to the door and threw it open with out even thinking of what possible dangers could be behind it. A mild look of confusion settled on to his features when he saw who was behind the door. "Roger? How the hell did you find this place?"  
  
"Nezumi sent me an email. She told me stop by some time," Roger answered as he stepped past Duo into the house.  
  
Another confused look crossed Duo's face as he shut the door. "How does she know? We never told her the location of this place."  
  
Roger raised an eyebrow, "I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count."  
  
Duo frowned, "You know, she really needs to stop hacking into the Preventers' network. She's going to get caught if she keeps it up."  
  
Roger gave Duo a weary half-smile, "Try telling her that."  
  
Duo shrugged it off and now that there was finally someone for him to talk to he regained his usual cheerful countenance. "So what are you doing here anyway?"  
  
"I wanted to talk to Heero and Nezumi."  
  
Duo gave a little snort. "Good luck, they've both locked themselves in their rooms."  
  
Roger smiled again. "Yeah, that sounds like something the two of them would do."  
  
"So which one do you want to talk with first?" Duo asked.  
  
Roger thought for a moment before answering, "Heero."  
  
Duo nodded and headed towards the stairs to inform the taciturn pilot of his visitor. However, he paused before his foot even reached the first step. He turned back around to face Roger, who was watching him with mild interest. "Just out of curiosity," Duo began, "what exactly have we gotten ourselves into by protecting Nezumi?"  
  
Roger's eyebrows furrowed together. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Just is there anything wrong with her that we should know about?"  
  
"Why? Is Nezumi sick?"  
  
Duo shrugged. "I was hoping you could tell me. She doesn't eat, and I thought that there might a reason."  
  
"She never ate a lot."  
  
"So she's ok then?"  
  
Roger nodded, "Yeah, she should be fine. Anything else you want to know?"  
  
Duo shrugged, "I'd like to know more about her in general. Whatever you want to tell me is fine."  
  
Roger thought for a moment before answering, "Well in a nutshell she's stubborn and opinionated but she usually means well."  
  
"What about her parents and her brother? What happened to them?"  
  
A pained look briefly crossed Roger's face at the mentioning of Nezumi's parents. "Her parents have been dead a long time. Her brother, Nicholas, is still alive; he's with the Bolsheviks." His voice became slightly angry as he spoke of Nicholas. "That boy is an idiot. I don't what he was thinking when he joined the Bolsheviks, and then he had the nerve to come back here and convince Nezumi to join their little group."  
  
"Eh, so what happened exactly?"  
  
"Nicholas took advantage of his baby sister, that's what happened. He knew that she loyal enough to him and idealistic enough to believe that the Bolsheviks could succeed. He just wanted her so he could please whoever the hell it is that he works for by getting a good hacker."  
  
Duo absorbed this information with his mouth hanging open. He had never had any siblings, but it he had always though that siblings would never use each other like that. "Ouch."  
  
Roger clamed down again and nodded in an agreement. "I bet it was a real slap in the face for Nezumi when she finally figured out what was going on."  
  
Duo could only nod his head in agreement. He could only imagine how much it must have hurt Nezumi to find out that one of the people she cared about was only using her. "So do you want me to go get Heero now?"  
  
"Yeah, there's a lot we need to talk about."  
  
Duo nodded and bounded up the stairs to retrieve Heero. Duo found his fellow pilot reading in his room. "Oi, Heero, you've got a visitor."  
  
"Who?" he asked without even bothering to look up from his book.  
  
"Roger."  
  
"What does he want?"  
  
"Says he just wants to talk."  
  
"Fine," Heero said as he got up from his chair. As he walked past Duo he thought of warning his comrade not to eavesdrop, but decide not to bother. Duo would properly listen in even if he did threaten to kill him. He had used that threat enough times that now the desired effected seemed to be lost on Duo.  
  
When Heero entered the living room he found Roger sitting in an easy chair. The older man greeted him with a stiff nod, which Heero returned as he took a seat on the couch. Roger noticed that even thought Heero appeared outwardly relaxed his muscles were still taunt and ready to spring into action at any sign of a threat. Roger couldn't help but smile a bit. "Once a soldier always a solider," he mused.   
  
Heero quirked an eyebrow at the comment. "What do want to talk about?"  
  
"You."  
  
Heero was uncertain where Roger was going with this conversion. He thus choice to remain silent and wait for the other man to continue.  
  
"Do you remember anything other then your training with Dr. J?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Odin."  
  
"That's it?"  
  
Heero just nodded. Roger snorted, "What did you do? Force yourself to forget?" Heero nodded again. "So you don't remember Nezumi?" Heero shook his head slightly.   
  
Roger wasn't sure whether to be grateful or sadden by this realization. He would be grateful because he knew that Nezumi's running away had been hard for the young man. Even though Heero had never said that he missed the little girl Roger had noticed that Heero had become even more withdrawn, and that was hard to do considering that Heero had been removed from society in the first place. However, it sadden Roger that Heero had chosen to ignore his past. The past was important; it was what made a person into what he or she is, and one could learn many things from the past.  
  
"I was wondering why you didn't seem to recognize her," Roger mumbled.  
  
Heero paused for a moment as he considered his next question, "Why did you want me to protect her?"  
  
Roger's eyes became slightly wider; "You knew why I sent her there?"  
  
Heero shook his head. "I heard you talking to you're friend the other night."  
  
Roger nodded with understanding, but remained silent as he considered his answer. He quickly became lost in thought. There had been so many reasons for sending Nezumi to Dr. J's lab. Which ones did Heero want to know?  
  
After several moments of silence Heero began to suspect that Roger had forgotten about the question. "Are you going to answer me?"  
  
Roger snapped back to reality. "Yeah, sure. Like I said the other night I thought you needed something to protect so that you knew what you were fighting for. It didn't have to be Nezumi, but she seemed like a good choice. I guess you don't remember, but she was a real tiny kid, kind of sickly looking too because she's so pale. She just looked like the kind of kid that you would need to take care of, and make sure nothing ever happened to her."  
  
Heero considered what Roger was saying. They reminded him of his reaction to seeing Nezumi sleeping in the moonlight, and how he felt that she needed someone to protect her from the ills of the world. Another thought occurred to Heero, "That's why you're letting me protect her now isn't it?"  
  
Roger nodded, "You protected her before. I know that you had thought that you failed when she ran away, but that wasn't your fault." Roger paused as he considered his next words. "I suppose I wanted to give you a second chance at protecting her, just to prove that you hadn't failed before."   
  
Heero eyebrows furrowed together slightly. "She ran away?"  
  
Roger nodded. "I suppose that would be one of things you choose to omit from your memory. A few months before you went to Earth her brother showed up, and convinced her to go join the Bolsheviks with him. I don't know what was going on in your head, but you seemed sad after she left. It was like you were depressed because she was gone."  
  
Heero was quiet for a few moments as he absorbed this information. In a way he was grateful to Roger for telling him about the past. However, he could not think of any reason why Roger was doing this. "Is this what you wanted to tell me?"  
  
Roger shrugged, "I don't really know what I wanted to tell you. I just felt that I needed to talk with you. Is there anything you wanted to know about?"  
  
"Her brother, what about him?"  
  
"Nicholas? He's still working for the Bolsheviks. I don't know what he does, only Nezumi could tell you that. He's the one that filled Nezumi's head with all that communist nonsense. He's the one that took away my little mouse," the last part was tainted with bitterness. Roger let it go with a sigh. He had no reasons to hold onto the ill will he beared Nicholas for taking Nezumi from; it would not help him. "Anything else?" Heero shook his head; he had heard enough for now. Roger stood up from his seat. "I'm going to go find Nezumi then." The burly man left the room, and Heero heard his heavy footsteps going up the stairs. He heard another, lighter pair of footsteps going up with Roger; Duo must have been hiding by the stairs.  
  
Heero leaned back into his seat. He had thinking to do, something he had been doing a lot of recently. He vaguely wished for life to be simple again, but upon further reflection he found that life had never been simple in the first place.   
  
"Damn."  
  
******  
  
Duo pointed to Nezumi's door when he reached the top of the stairs with Roger. The older man nodded his thanks, and walked up to the door. He gently knocked on it, and waited for Nezumi to answer. After several minutes without a response he quietly opened the door. Roger smiled at the sight before him.  
  
Nezumi was stretched out on the bed with her eyes closed and headphones covering her ears as she listened to a CD. The hardships of her life seemed to have momentarily melted away as her socked foot swayed with the rhythm of the music. At that moment she looked content with the world, and absolutely normal. Her eyes opened for some unknown reason and rested their gaze on Roger. A small smile graced her lips as she spoke, "Hey, you came." She sat up on the bed while removing her headphones and turning off her little CD player.  
  
Roger took a seat on the foot of the bed. "You know I would if you asked," he said as he returned her smile. "So how have you been doing?" he was thinking of what Duo had said earlier when he asked the question.  
  
"I'm ok," she assured him. "Don't worry, Duo and Heero have been watching out for me."  
  
"How has Heero been?"  
  
Nezumi shrugged, "Fine, I guess. He doesn't seem to remember me though."  
  
"It was a rough time for him. He properly doesn't like to think about it."  
  
"He remembered you."  
  
Roger let out a sigh. She didn't know what had happened after she left with Nicholas. He should have told, he knew that she had a soft spot for the Wing pilot, but he didn't know how to. He desperately searched for the right words, a way to tell her without making her feel guilty even guiltier about leaving.  
  
Nezumi noticed the difficulty Roger was experiencing, and her eyebrows came together in a confused and worried look. "What is it?"  
  
"I don't think you realize how much your disappearance affected everyone, and what you meant to that boy."  
  
"What do you mean? He only pitied me because I was such a sick little kid."  
  
Roger shook his head, "No, you were more. I let you go to Dr. J's so that he would feel he had something to fight for, you were his someone to protect." Confusion was still evident in her slate blue eyes as she watched him. "He was a soldier, he needed something to protect, something more personal than just the colonies. When you left he didn't have anyone person to protect anymore, and he changed. I think he became depressed without a flesh and blood version of what he was fighting for."  
  
Nezumi continued to search Roger's face for answers of what had happened during her absence. She could tell that he was still holding information from her. "What else happened?"  
  
Roger meet her questioning gaze, "He tired to kill himself. A lot."  
  
"Oh," was the only thing she could think of to say as she absorbed this information. She had never though of Heero as the suicidal type. He had been too dedicated to his mission to even consider that option. Had she really been that important to him? Various memories of instances where Heero had been nice to her, or at least nicer to her than he was to most came to mind. The way he had stopped other kids from teasing her, or helping her break into systems while she was still learning the skills being a hacker required.  
  
"Well, now you know."  
  
Nezumi raised an eyebrow at Roger, but said nothing. They both sat in silence for a few minutes as Nezumi ran through her memories over and over again.   
  
However, Roger did not want to let the girl mull over the past. After his conversation with his friend in the bar the other day he had started to worry about Nezumi's future. He was concerned that his friend's prophecy might come true, and Nezumi would become a target for the Preventers after attempting to put a reform movement into motion.  
  
"What are you going to do when all of this is over."  
  
Nezumi retreated from the depths of her mind and shrugged at Roger. "Go to college, I guess."  
  
"Aren't you a bit young for college?"  
  
Another shrug, "I'm to old to start high school. I can just take my GED and go straight to college."  
  
"What then?"  
  
"I'll decide that when the time comes."  
  
Roger frowned, "So you don't have any idea what you want to do after college?"  
  
"Of I course I know what I want to do," she said with grin. "I want to change the world, it's all just a matter of how I do it."  
  
His frown deepened at her words. "I was afraid you'd say something like that," he muttered quietly. However, Nezumi heard what he said and her smile faded as her eyebrows furrowed together.  
  
"Huh? What's wrong?"  
  
Roger shook his head, "You're going to get yourself into trouble, I just know it."  
  
"I'll deal with that if it comes up."  
  
"Knowing you it will," the words were again merely whispered intended for only his ears, but once again Nezumi heard them.  
  
"What? It's not like I'm going to do anything illegal, Roger. Christ, I was just planning to write political essays, be a lobbyist, but you make it seem as if I'm going to plan coo," as she spoke more and more anger and annoyance was mixed into her voice.  
  
"It wouldn't surprise me if you did," his voice was full of spite.  
  
There was mistaking the bright flask of anger in her slate colored eyes and the anger in her words, "I'm not an idiot Roger. I know better then to directly challenge ESUN."  
  
A bitter snort escaped Roger, "Well, you could have fooled me because I was under the impression that the Bolsheviks, a group that you were a member of for FIVE YEARS, had every intention of doing just that."  
  
"Yes, well, I'M not the one who came with that idea, and in case you didn't notice I left them before they could do anything to carry out that plan."  
  
"That's not the point! The point is that you still believe in all their tenets, and that everyone is right in thinking that you're going to get yourself in trouble because of it," by this point Roger's voice was loud enough to be considered yelling.  
  
Her voice became surprising calm when she spoke next, but that only added an icy edge to the venom to her words. "I thought you knew better then to blindly follow the majority and believe anything that anyone tells you, but I guess I was wrong about that." Her words struck a cord in Roger, and made him regret yelling at her. He had always prided himself on always forming his own opinions, but he had faltered in this path. He had allowed someone else to make his opinions for him, and had followed it simply out of fear and concern. He looked deeply into the harsh gaze of Nezumi. The girl was like a daughter to him. He had only allowed himself to be controlled out of concern for her.   
  
"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. His own eye filled with regret at offending Nezumi as he held her gaze. "I just worry about you."  
  
Her voice was still cool. "Don't. I can take care of myself."  
  
"Just tell me what is it you plan to do."  
  
"I'll do whatever I feel is right."  
  
"Just try not to do anything stupid."  
  
A brief smile crossed her lips; "I would never do anything of the sort." Roger returned the smile, but still could not forget his concern over the girl's future. "Quit worrying about the future, we still need to get through the present."  
  
"Right." Roger stood to leave, but turned to Nezumi again. "Do me a favor ok?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You knew Heero better then most people; help him deal with whatever issues he has with the past."  
  
"Sure."  
  
Roger bid her farewell, and left her to her thoughts. Nezumi slumped back against her pillows. "How the hell I'm suppose to help him deal with the past? He doesn't even remember it." She let out a frustrated sigh when the air offered her no helpful advice. "Damn it." 


End file.
